“We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

There’s nothing in the physical world to quite compare it to.  When parents with different ethnic heritage conceive a child, the child carries some of both ethnic factors, but not 100% of both.  Hybrid cars have both electric and gas components, but such cars are not totally electric and gas simultaneously.  In art there are primary colors, like yellow and blue.  When mixed together, they make green, which is totally green and neither yellow nor blue.  So trying to find a similarity to Jesus being the One and Only — or “only begotten”, as the NIV footnote and other translations say — of God is challenging at best, impossible at worst.

The Greek term for this is monogenes, literally, “only or single offspring”.  It is also used as a term of endearment obviously because an only son or daughter is going to be cherished and prized.  Take, for example, Isaac.  Moses twice records God saying to Abraham about Isaac, “your son, your only son” (Genesis 22:2, 12; see also Hebrews 11:17).  I debated Muslims on this point.  Their contention was that Ishmael was not only Abraham’s son, he was also his firstborn!  This is an example, they say, of a Christian perversion of Moses’ writings.  However, long after Hagar and Ishmael were gone, the Lord was still predicting a son for Abraham through Sarah: “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son” (18:10).  We see the fulfillment in chapter 21.  Isaac was indeed Abraham’s only son through Sarah.  This is indisputable: the nation of Israel is the result. Thus Isaac, not Ishmael, is the son of promise (Galatians 4:23, 28).  Nevertheless, Isaac’s gene pool was not comprised of 100% of either Abraham or Sarah’s genes, but some of both.

When we come to Christ, it’s a different story.  Because of other verses describing him (John 1:1, Colossians 1:15-17, Hebrews 1:3), monogenes takes on a different flavor.  Clearly from these other verses, Christ did not become an offspring of God, even the only offspring, at a point in time.  He did not come chronologically after God.  He is, always has been, and always will be the Second Person of the godhead, much as the Holy Spirit is, always has been, and always will be the Third Person.  The Nicene Creed puts it this way: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father….”  Thus, regarding Christ monogenes means uniquely related to the godhead by inherently having the same nature and essence of divinity as the Father and Spirit, and perfectly loved in that relationship by the other two.  This did not begin when the only begotten Son was conceived and born on earth, or at any other previous time.  The cults really choke on this point, their doctrinal positions clearly robbing Jesus not only of his true identity, but also of his successful work on the cross.  Many other unbelievers do the same.

John, ever the most relational of apostles, is the only New Testament writer to use monogenes in relation to the Savior.  He progressively reveals an increasing revelation of God’s nature. John 1:14 — “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  Look at what Christ could have showed: God’s anger, wrath or judgment, which would have been fully justified.  But no, it was his indescribable glory, full of grace and truth!  What does that say of his intentions?…  John 1:18 — “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”  Here we see that the Son is the epitome of revelation, coming from and returning to the Father.   John 3:16 and 18 emphatically state that eternal destinies are determined by man’s response to the nature of the One and Only.  These verses highlight a major fact: in all the New Testament it was people who rejected Jesus, not the other way around.  We never see him reject anyone.  Finally in 1 John 4:9 we find, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him”.  Again, his intention and desire is our eternal future with him.  If Jesus is not the monogenes of God, he can’t be our Savior.  Whatever happened on the cross was not the work of God but of man.  But God will have none of that: “no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:29).

I am told the French Bible translates monogenes “unique”.  He is that, and yet more, much more.  Fully God, yet fully man.  He became like us without sin.  Are you reciprocating, becoming like him?